The Day Between

Elections and Thyroidectomy

In the last two weeks we’ve gained a surprising, controversial president-elect and I’ve lost a thyroid.  What could these two things have to do with each other?  Well, the whole process has been a real pain in the neck!  But convalescing leads to reading or watching various news items between old movies that bring comfort.  Funny, the phrase that has caught my attention is “Love Trumps Hate.”  This is an ironic saying coming from folks who are beating those that disagree with them.  It is even more bizarre that these same folks are longing for safe places as they block traffic, vandalize personal property, and burn things – like our flag.

In the words of the immortal Indigo Montoya of Princess Bride fame, “I don’t think that word means what you think it means.”

I thought to myself – I must not know what this phrase means.  It must be code or something for throwing a tantrum when one doesn’t get one’s way.

So, I looked it up.  It is supposed to mean that love conquers hate – is better than or wins over hate.  Of course, it was one of Hilary Clinton’s campaign slogans implying that a vote for Mr. Trump would be a vote for hate.  What is meant by “love” apparently is acceptance of all peoples, races, ethnicities, genders, opinions, religions, and sexual orientations, countries without borders, building bridges etc… – not merely acceptance, but embracing, supporting, praising and paying for the same.  Anyone who disagrees with this definition of love or attempts to put some limits on it will not be tolerated and will be labeled a variety of -ists.

This begs the question.  What is love, really?

This is what I read this morning:

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.  If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

The Greeks had four words for love.  The one in this chapter is agape, defined as a sacrificial, giving, absorbing kind of love. The word has little to do with emotion; it has much to do with self-denial for the sake of another.**

As DC Talk used to rap, Love is a Verb.

It is a motivating force that must be spiritually gained and continually appraised.

What the Apostle Paul is saying in this introduction to love is that we can have all the gifts, power of persuasion, empowerment, knowledge, and good deeds anyone could want, but if it is not motivated by agape love it is meaningless.  And he was talking to believers.

Which causes me to think that being a believer doesn’t necessarily mean we always have this motivation. 

Then he goes on to describe what this kind of love looks like, so we would know it when we saw it.

Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Wow.  Have we seen this - certainly not in politics, how about the church? 

Now this is read at weddings, but it is not romantic, not really.  It is not a hearts and flowers kind of love.  We can put our own name in the place of ‘love’ to see how we measure up; it will be revealing, but not all that edifying.

This is a ‘rubber meets the road’ kind of love.  This is an ‘everyday stuck in traffic going to the same lousy job’ kind of love.  This is ‘my health, my beloved, my kids, my relationships aren’t all that great’ kind of love.  This is a ‘walking worthy’ kind of love (Colossians 1:10).  And we’re told this kind of love never fails.

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.

Not only does it never fail, but nothing else really matters.

Jesus is our living example of this kind of love.  We can’t say we haven’t seen anyone live it out.  Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, as a fragrant aroma (Ephesians 5:1-2).

We have a high calling, a responsibility to a deceived, troubled and angry world.

For we know in part and we prophecy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.  When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

We have chosen many foolish ways, but someday everyone will know the Truth when they see Him.

But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13).

Our world doesn’t know what love is.  They can’t define it correctly.  We believers have a lot of work ahead of us.  If we don’t embody it - dwell in it, they are not going to know what it looks like.

When they finally see Him, it will be too late for many of them.

** http://biblehub.com/commentaries/guzik/commentaries/4613.htm